Reconciliation between Belgrade and Podgorica?

The delegation of the Government of Montenegro, which will be led by the Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, will be on an official visit to Serbia on June 29 and 30. The platform for the official trip will be determined at today's Government session, "Vijesti" confirmed.

Abazović announced the visit on June 8 in Ohrid, after talks with the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, saying at the time that the two countries were directed at each other.

In addition to the prime minister and his advisers, the state delegation, according to "Vijesti" information, will also include the deputy prime minister for the economic system. Vladimir Jokovic, Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović and Minister of Urban Planning and Ecology Ana Novakovic Đurović.

The Government has not officially answered who is traveling to Belgrade with Abazović and with whom the meetings are planned.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ranko Krivokapic he recently explained why he will not be in the state delegation - on the Načisto TV News show, he said that it is not a practice for the Prime Minister to go with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, since the Prime Minister also covers that position.

Abazović spoke with the Serbian official on the sidelines of the "Open Balkans" summit in North Macedonia, where the Prime Minister of Montenegro was an observer.

"President Vučić and I agreed that the two countries are directed towards each other and that together they should create a European future, based on reconciliation and cooperation," the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter at the time.

Political relations between Montenegro and Serbia have been on a downward trajectory in recent years. They were especially aggravated after the passing of the Law on Freedom of Religion, and the culmination of the tightening occurred at the end of the Government's mandate Duško Marković - when the then ambassador of Serbia in Podgorica was expelled Vladimir Bozovic.

Božović remained in office from Belgrade, and despite the announcement that it would be possible to respond reciprocally to the official Podgorica, the Government of Serbia gave up on announcing the ambassador of Montenegro. Tarzan Milosevic persona non grata.

However, it was the former Government Zdravka Krivokapića withdrew from Belgrade, so that diplomatic post remained vacant until today.

When it comes to high-level bilateral meetings between the two countries, as announced on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić paid an official visit to Serbia on November 2 and 3, 2021 at the invitation of his Serbian colleague. Ana Brnabić.

Four years earlier, 3-4. February 2017, then Prime Minister Dusko Markovic it is also was on his first official visit to Belgrade.

It was a period when it was publicly claimed that the relations between the two neighboring countries were good.

Before that, the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic he stayed 9-10. in December 2013 on an official visit to Serbia, and the Prime Minister of Serbia Ivica Dacic On September 20, 2013, on an official visit to Montenegro.

When it comes to the meetings of the president, the highest official of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić he never officially came to Podgorica, while he is the former president of Montenegro Filip Vujanovic Visited Belgrade in 2016 and 2014.

Vučić was in Montenegro during the funeral of the metropolitan of the Montenegrin littoral SPC Amphilochia, but he did not meet with any official at the time. He then had meetings with the leaders of the Democratic Front Milan Knežević i Andrija Mandić, in the family home of the leader of the New Serbian Democracy.

Vučić did not officially stay in Podgorica even when he was the head of the Government of Serbia.